TVM Deadline

Just another reminder that the TVM Tutorial deadline is this Saturday. You can bring your TVM to the Department of Finance and Real Estate office (room 434) today (Friday).

I will be on campus this Saturday. If you would like to drop off your TVM this Saturday, come by my office (room 631). If I am not in my office, just put the TVM under my door (but give it a good shove).

Final Exam / Investment Problem

The final exam is scheduled for Saturday, May 10th at 10:00 AM in room 241. The final exam will be 50 to 100 multiple choice style questions. As always, please bring your photo ID, pencils, Scan-tron answer sheet, and calculator. The final is cumulative but I will give emphasis to Chapter 16 / Analyzing Income Producing Properties. The final is not mandatory as I take your three highest examination grades out of four. If you are happy with your existing three exam scores, you do not have to take the final.

As described in the syllabus, there is a bonus opportunity on the final exam. I refer to the bonus as the "Investment Problem." Here is how it works. After you complete the final exam, I will have a copy of an Investment Problem ready. You just tell me that you would like to try the Investment Problem.

An example of the "Investment Problem" is on our website near the Chapter 16 materials. The problem is a three year discounted cash flow analysis problem for a small income producing property.

After the final exam, you are given just the Investment Problem assumptions and you need to work through the problem with just your calculator and a pencil (no formulas provided!).

If you are up for a challenge, check it out. It will take some work and lots of practice. There are video clips reviewing an Investment Problem on our website, but if you would like to see me go over an investment problem in-person please come to room 241 at 8 AM this Friday morning (April 25th).

Also, don't forget that all TVM Tutorials are due this Saturday, April 26th.

Thank you Helen Moise of Cousins Properties

Thank you Helen for coming to campus this morning to speak with the real estate students about property management. We enjoyed hearing about the many different aspects of property management.

Helen Moise, CPM, CCIM is Director of Property Management for Cousins Properties. She is responsible for the management of a large portfolio of commercial real estate assets located in the Metroplex. Helen is also a graduate of the UTA MSRE program (1990).

In addition to a very informative presentation, a REAE 3325 student, Rachael Garrick, won 4 tickets to a Texas Rangers game.

Buying question

I once knew this guy who bought houses from people who couldn't make their payments. He filed or did some kind of paper work that allowed him to take over the payments and property so it never affected their credit. Do you know what that paper work process is called?

I have been looking for it but have either missed it or don't recognize the name.

Guest Speaker: Helen Moise, CPM

Wednesday, April 23rd at 8:00 AM we have a guest speaker.

Helen Moise, CPM, CCIM
Director of Property Management
Cousins Properties

You are invited to attend.

Exam 3 Grades/Review Posted

Grades for Exam 3 have been posted to WebCT and the exam review clip has been uploaded to our homepage (just see the assignments for this week).

The class average was a 75% which includes a two-question curve.

Also, don't forget that the deadline to submit the TVM tutorial is this Saturday. An updated TVM completion list has also been posted on our homepage.

Exam 3 Question

Student question: "How many questions on Exam 3?"

Answer: 40 to 50 (max).

See you guys in the morning (10 AM in room 241)!

EXAM 3 in one week!

EXAM 3 is Saturday, April 19th at 10 AM in Room 241. Please bring your PHOTO ID, pencils, calculator, and Scan-tron answer sheet. (TVM final deadline is the following Saturday.)

Ch 11 Appraisal

Just a heads up regarding Chapter 11 Appraisal. This will be an important chapter on the next exam (which will be next Saturday!). I would definitely take a look at the extra materials and problems for this chapter (located on the website under the Chapter 11 materials).

Also, that crossword puzzle is a good tool to help with all the definitions in this chapter. It is harder than it looks!

Swearingen Job Opportunity from Greg Bennett

http://realestateprogram.blogspot.com/2008/04/swearingen-job-opportunity-from-greg.html

Greg can in to speak during Business Week and now he would like to hire someone full-time starting in May. Check out this link.

Axiom 1: Location, location, location...

This adage is usually expressed as a joke.

“What are the three most important real estate characteristics?”

Of course, the answer is “location, location, location.” It is certainly true that location attributes, or situs, are very important property features. As we should know by now, the spatial dimension of real estate is what makes every property different and this asset class truly unique.

Real estate and basically all other business disciplines can be thought of as branches or subsets of general economics. Do you remember a basic definition of 'economics' from you first economics class? It might go something like this, economics is the study of the allocation of scare resources. If everything was free and abundant, there would be no need for the study of economics.

Finance is a specialization developed from economics. Do you remember a definition of 'finance' from your first finance class? It might go something like this, finance is the allocation of scarce resources (i.e., money usually) over time. Time is an important dimension in finance and the reason we make such a bid deal about the time-value-of-money.

Real estate can be viewed as a specialization in finance. Do you remember a definition of 'real estate'? It might go something like this, real estate is the allocation of scare resources (i.e., real estate in this case!) over time and space. Space or geography is an important dimension of real estate and the reason why we make such a big deal about location, location, location.

Fastest Growing Area

a news article that recently came out says the DFW metroplex is the fastest growing in the US.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa080327_ac_census.59a6e06.html

CREW Network Scholarship Opportunity

Check out this link for a scholarship opportunity:

http://realestateprogram.blogspot.com/2008/03/crew-scholarship.html

Real Estate Axioms

Every industry has its axioms and real estate is no exception.  If you choose a career in real estate, you will run across the following three adages.

“Location, location, location”

“It’s a people business”

“Gut-feeling”

Although axioms can sometimes be a little annoying, they survive the test of time because they contain important nuggets of wisdom.  We will examine each one in subsequent posts.

VA Loans

I wanted to post a question I have recently encountered. We purchased our current home under a VA Loan and are about to purchase a second home with another VA Loan. What restrictions might come up when trying to do this?

Exam 2 Grades Posted on WebCT

Exam 2 grades have been upload to WebCT. www.uta.edu/webct (login with your UTA username and password).

Exam 2 Video/Audio Clip Posted on Website

The exam 2 video/audio clip review has been posted on our website. Please review the exam at your convenience. I will post grades on WebCT by Monday evening.

The class average was 78% and the highest grade was 100% and the lowest 40%. There was a one question curve (to calculate the grades I took the number of questions correct divided by 44- instead of 45, the total number of questions).

Overall a good job. Thanks once again for arriving promptly and bringing your Scan-trons, pencils, calculators, and photo IDs.

Exam 2 10 AM on Saturday March 8th

Just a friendly reminder that Exam 2 will start at 10 AM and end at 11 AM on Saturday, March 8th. We will be in the same classroom, room 241 Business Building. Saturday's weather looks clear and sunny. See you tomorrow!

Fidelity Investments Job Open House

Fidelity Investments is hosting a Networking Mixer for students on Wednesday, March 19th and want to invite UTA’s business students to attend. The information below spells out the details and allows students (does not specify if they are looking for undergraduate, graduate, or both) to attend via an RSVP mailbox. The Open House falls during spring break however Fidelity is hopeful that there will be plenty of students staying in town that week who may be searching for a career opportunity. Both the Personal & Workplace Investing business and the Pricing & Cash Management Services business want to hire UTA May graduates.

Have you recently graduated, or will you be graduating in 2008?Join Fidelity Investments for a networking mixer on March 19. Come meet our talented employees and managers and learn about our Personal Workplace & Investing and Pricing & Cash Management Services businesses in the southwest region.

Our beautiful Westlake campus is not to be missed!
Location: One Destiny Way, Westlake, TX
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Come dressed professionally and bring a resume to share.

► Reserve your spot today. Email WestlakeOpenHouse@FMR.com by March 15th

Texas Standard Sales Agreement

Good question Crystal in the post below this one.

My eyes are older than most, but I did not see a home sale contingency in the text book example (pleases post a comment if anyone else sees it). Let's find another example. One of the links on our class homepage is to the Texas Real Estate Commission or TREC. TREC produces standardized contracts for licenses brokers to use in Texas. The TREC contract is most standard single family residential transactions. Download the contract at http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/contracts/24-7.pdf. This contract has a good example of a "mortgage contingency" clause (Item 4) which is a contingency that the buyer puts in to make sure they can obtain a mortgage before buying the property (if the buyer cannot obtain the mortgage then the contract is voidable by the buyer). However, I do not see a seller an "Other Home Sale" clause in this contract either.

TREC has a separate addendum for the "Sale of Other Property by Buyer" which you can download here: http://www.trec.state.tx.us/pdf/contracts/10-5.pdf. If this is included in the sales agreement, the seller is asking for the right to sell their existing home at a specified price as a contingency. Many times the seller needs to sell their existing house before they can buy a new house because they cannot afford the mortgages and upkeep on two houses. When the real estate market is active with many sales, this contingency might not be a problem. However, when the market is slow, this could be a problem.

As a potential seller would you like a finance and sale of other property contingency in your offer? No. This is risk to the seller. Therefore, if you have two contracts for the same amount (or close to it) except that one contract has contingencies and the other does not, which one are you going to take. Yes, the offer without the contingencies is a stronger offer to the seller, all else equal.